A Single Blossom

Hello. Long time no check in. You haven't missed much. The painting lessons continue. We finished our first painting yesterday. It is a landscape with hills in the distance and rocks and grasses in the foreground. My sister in law took hers home yesterday and if she brings it back I will photograph the three and show you.

We are starting late today as sister in law had to work this morning. She will arrive in about an hour to start a new painting. This time we're doing a sunflower on a 9 1/2 by 11 1/2 stretched canvas. Aunt J leaves on Thursday so unless we kidnap her for longer, we are then on our own.

I have to tell you a story that has had me laughing all week. A friend of mine had a hysterectomy a couple of weeks ago. She's a bit shy so every time someone asked her what kind of surgery she was having she jokingly told them a boob job. When she was waking up in the recovery room she could hear some nurses and a plastic surgeon talking about cosmetic surgery. She piped up and asked if her boob job was over. The nurses came over to her and said, "You didn't have a boob job, Dear, you had a hysterectomy." Everything suddenly came back as is wont to do when coming out of anaesthesia. She was embarrassed but I've been laughing all week every time I think of it.

Kat's blog, Keep The Coffee Coming is my source of news these days. I had not heard until I read there yesterday, that Blossom Dearie had passed away on Saturday. Please go to Kat's site to read an obituary on Blossom. I'm a huge fan of her music and I'll miss her. She was performing well into her 70's and you can see lots of those performances on Youtube. Here is a link to her Wiki page and here in no particular order are some of her songs:

• Try Your Wings
• It Amazes Me
• Peel Me a Grape - with Lyle Lovett
  
• Someone To Watch Over Me
• Moonlight Savings Time
• Surrey With The Fringe On Top
• Teach Me Tonight
  

Indian Summer!

What a wonderful "Indian Summer" day it's been! I did a whole lot of gardening and outdoor chores. Friends dropped by unexpectedly and we had a grand time. We had refreshments on the deck as it was wonderfully warm and sunny. We took a drive to the beach and encountered two hang gliders playing in the breeze. They steered themselves up and down the coast. A couple in leathers, on one motorcycle, were there too. They had seen them as they were driving along and knew they were about to glide along the beach so took the first road that looked like it was going to the shore. Turned out my son was at the next beach up so was under them too.

I got two of the lilies planted finally but am waiting on one as it still has three buds that are going to bloom. I want to keep it on the porch to bring it in on heavy frost nights. I don't have enough knowledge about lilies to know if I am giving it the correct treatment.

If you like scat singing I have a link for you. I found this fabulous YouTube video of Sarah Vaughan and just love it. The control that woman had and the rich voice. I just love Sarah Vaughan. I haven't had any of her up in a while and I think she has some autumn songs....

I haven't featured any Madeleine Peyroux for a while. I heard she has a new album coming out. My aunt and uncle had taped an evening's concert of Madeleine and her band for me to see when I was visiting them in the spring. It was fabulous. She has a kind of peculiar phrasing but it's what sets her apart. Here's This Is Heaven To Me and I'll Look Around. She always has a great band which in itself is worth a listen.

The above paragraph is from a July '07 post and that has the perfect music for today's hang glider post. If the links above don't work go there through this link. Here are a couple more that have already been featured on the blog. Nothing new today. Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer by Ry Cooder and Try Your Wings by Blossom Dearie. That will have to do tonight. I want to continue this wonderful day.

Not able to go walking yet, I have to be content watching nature from my yard or on days like this, from my window. On Saturday my sister discovered an ermine or weasel outside the window in front of where I'm sitting. I've been watching it ever since. In just that few days it is becoming less white and more brown, like rabbits do seasonally. The weasel is carrying meadow voles or big field mice, as they are most commonly known, through snow burrows to a spot under a slab of ice that formed just outside the window from snow falling off the roof. The voles are larger in mass, I believe than the weasel. The weasel is longer but the vole is much bigger around. Amazing I say, as this skinny little fellow jumps up, runs, jumps up and runs - over and over, looking all around, until he gets to the slab of ice and hurries underneath. He has three exit holes. Kenz was sniffing around them on Saturday, the aroma of field mouse making her very interested, I'm sure.

I see a beautiful fox here every couple of days. He comes up to this window too, that aroma coming from the den drawing him too. It would be hard for any animal to break through the ice so he's patiently waiting for thaw and a big cache to feast on. My son saw him on the deck a while back, watching Kenz sleeping on the back of her chair. The raccoons who are regulars started coming around a month ago. They broke the glass out of the bird feeders and ate through the bungee cords that held the feeder on to the deck. I'm putting it away until next year when, as usual, I will replace the glass and set it out for another winter of bird watching.

Speaking of birds, I've had flocks of fifty or more cedar waxwings and thirty or so robins eating fallen apples under the apple trees. Yesterday there was a male Hairy Woodpecker on one of the trees and he's a regular visitor. Flocks of starlings are still landing in the pastures around me. It seems as they may not have flown south at all. These are some photos on the Shutterchance blog that I posted of these starling murmurations. On the first one you can see there are as many on the ground as in the sky.

I think I said not long ago how I love Blossom Dearie. She does such great arrangements and her phrasing is about perfect. Both Try Your Wings and It Amazes Me are two songs that show this to a T. It Amazes Me is a very nice example of her excellent piano work. I think I stated on the blog a year or so ago that she is still performing and according to the Wiki article linked at her name above, "Dearie has continued to perform in clubs. As one of the last remaining supper club performers, she still performs regular engagements in London and New York City." Wow!